Russia to support UN newly established Counter-Terrorism Office

The Under Secretary General of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office will have meetings with the foreign ministers of 41 countries

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UNITED NATIONS, September 18. /TASS/. Russia will support the work of the United Nations newly established Counter-Terrorism Office, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday at a meeting with Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office Vladimir Voronkov.

"We will continue to support your activity, the activity of your office. We will do our best to make our contribution to its work," the minister pledged.

"We are thankful to the United Nations Secretary-General for this decision (to establish an anti-terrorism office - TASS)," he said. "We are also thankful for approving your candidature (as the office’s head)."

"We hope that the establishment of this structure can be interpreted as a sign of how much attention the United Nations is paying to counter-terrorism efforts," Lavrov stressed.

On June 21, 2017, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed Vladimir Voronkov Under Secretary General of the UN Counetr-Terrorism Office that had been established by General Assembly Resolution 71/291 of June 15, 2017. The new structure is tasked to coordinate international efforts to counter terrorism.

Voronkov said on Monday he would have meetings with the foreign ministers of 41 countries on the sidelines of the 72th session of the UN General Assembly.

"I hope I'll have many meetings with foreign ministers during this ministerial week," he said. "My work in the new capacity began with ministerial week and today alone I'm going to have 41 meetings."

"I hope the foreign ministers will tell how to build the operations of our office in the most suitable way," Voronkov said.

"My meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was the first one in this chain," he said. "I received the assurances of support for the operations of this newly created office and this certainly means a big contribution to the further success of our work."

Voronkov recalled the U.S., too, gave active support to the setting up of the Counter-Terrorism Office.

"All the member-states supported this initiative of the UN Secretary-General," he said.